on>
“DEAR TOBY.”
SHE LEANED IN EVEN CLOSER.
It needed a tougher man than he to resist the invitation.
His mouth came down on hers and he’d have gasped—if he could. He settled for pressing his lips against hers, and taking her passion and sweetness into his soul. He sensed her breath catch and her heart rate speed up as she kissed him back, her mouth opening to his. Before he could taste her tongue, she found his, caressing with her woman’s passion and mortal need.
He kissed on, stroking her tongue with his, meeting her need, driving his own higher.
He paused to let her catch her breath. She restarted the kiss, running her hands up and down his back, until she reached under his shirt and her healer’s hands caressed his skin.
He almost came there and then. What had happened to his vampire control?
Who cared as long as he held Laura in his arms? No more furtive visits as she slept. She wanted him, desired him, and soon, very soon…
The Novels of Rosemary Laurey:
KEEP ME FOREVER
BE MINE FOREVER
KISS ME FOREVER/LOVE ME FOREVER
Anthologies Featuring Rosemary Laurey:
TEXAS BAD BOYS
IMMORTAL BAD BOYS
ROSEMARY LAUREY
MIDNIGHT LOVER
ZEBRA BOOKS
Kensington Publishing Corp.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 1
There was something decidedly sneaky about skulking about the house in the middle of the night, but Toby Wise was hungry.
Really hungry.
Hungry for the sweet warmth of her mortal blood and the glorious scent of her skin.
Too bad his overactive conscience was giving him such a difficult time. He was vampire. He fed off living mortals. He never harmed them and made certain they had no memory of the event. He’d managed quite nicely for the past century and a half or so. Taking mortal blood for sustenance was what vampires did.
Why was Laura Fox any different?
Because she was.
Damn.
He paid her very well, along with the other nurses who took shifts to care for Piet Connor. The seemingly straightforward plan had been to feed off each of them in turn—necessary since in Oregon he lacked the connections to maintain a constant supply of blood bags. His scheme worked brilliantly until Laura Fox arrived.
After a vampire lifetime of detachment from his food source, Toby Wise had fallen hard and fast. If he had any survival instincts left, he’d replace her. Obviously survival wasn’t as high a priority as it used to be. He couldn’t bear the thought of not seeing her. He grudged her every day off and had to rein in his predatory urges to feed off her every single night she was in the house.
It had been four days, an extraordinarily long four days, and tonight he would indulge, sate his unruly self on the joy of her blood, delight in her soul, inhale the very essence of her being, satisfy every vampire instinct, and be consumed with guilt again at the end of it all.
Damn and double damn. Why in the name of Abel did she affect him this way?
He wasn’t sure he wanted that one answered. He’d seen what happened to his colony fellows: Kit Marlowe, Justin Corvus, and Tom Kyd. One by one, they’d fallen in love and settled into domestic bliss—or at least the nearest vampire equivalent. Yes, they were very content, obviously happy, and delighting in their respective women. Heck, even ice lady Antonia had found herself a worthy mate.
He, Toby Wise, was thrilled for them, but that sort of lifestyle just wasn’t his cup of tea. He’d been a loner since he was seven years old, the day his owner had thrown his mother to the ground and dragged a terrified Toby from her arms. Two days later he’d been sold and shipped off to a plantation in the low country of South Carolina. He’d never seen his mother or seven brothers and sisters again.
No, good friends he had aplenty, but close emotional connections were not for him.
On the other side of the smooth teak door, heartbeats measured two mortal lives. The slower pulse marked Piet Connor’s grasp on his sadly limited existence. The other was strong, steady, and vibrant: the heartbeat of a healthy young woman. Toby listened; there was no movement inside. He waited, just to be sure, and slowly opened the door.
Laura was dozing in an easy chair across the room. The shaded light on the table beside her cast a pool of light that highlighted the glints in her auburn hair
